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Issue 1472
Welcome to another edition of RV Travel’s Daily Tips newsletter. Here you’ll find helpful RV-related and living tips from the pros, travel advice, a handy website of the day, tips on our favorite RVing-related products and, of course, a good laugh. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate you. Please tell your friends about us.
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Today’s thought
“I am a part of all that I have met.” ―
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Button Day!
On this day in history: 1945 – UNESCO is founded.
Did you see the news? Click here to read the latest issue of the Sunday News for RVers.
Tip of the Day
A hot tip for a cold RV night
By Jim Twamley
Everyone has a different RV sleeping profile. Some folks like to sleep with the windows open even during winter. Others prefer the warmth of an electric blanket. Some sleep with the covers off, while others like the feel of several heavy layers of blankets. Some sleep in the buff while others wear Charles Dickens-era pajamas. Some sleep with one naked foot out of the covers while others sleep with socks. It’s all a matter of personal preference.
The important issue is that you get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed and ready for another day. … I stumbled upon a great idea that has made a huge difference for us at bedtime. Read Jim’s cozy advice.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
Today’s RV review…
In today’s column, industry insider Tony Barthel reviews the new 2021 Oliver Legacy Elite II Travel Trailer. As he reports, “While these aren’t trailers everyone is going to like, there are people for whom the uniqueness or build quality or even nautical feel is just the ticket.” Learn more.
Tony’s reviews from this weekend you may have missed:
• 2021 Leisure Travel Vans Wonder RL
• 2021 Forest River Wildwood X-Lite 28VBXL Travel Trailer
For previous RV reviews, click here.
Is this your RV?
If it’s yours and you can prove it to us (send a couple of photos for comparison), tell us here by 9 p.m. Pacific Standard time today, November 16, 2020. If it’s yours you’ll win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.
If this isn’t your RV, send us a photo of your RV here (if you haven’t already) for a chance to win in future issues.
We’ll have another photo in tomorrow’s RV Daily Tips Newsletter (sign up to receive an email alert so you don’t miss the issue or those that follow). Some of these photos are submitted by readers while others were taken by our editors and writers on their travels around the USA.
RV Electricity – This week’s J.A.M. (Just Ask Mike) Session
Charging batteries with a tender
Dear Mike,
I’ve stored our 5th wheel indoors this winter and for insurance purposes I had to remove my two 6-volt Trojan batteries. I’d like to put them on a battery tender for the winter season. The Trojans are rated for 225AH and my charger is a NOCO Genius 2. Before charging my test showed 5.7 volts of charge on each battery. I’ve had the first battery hooked up and charging for 3 days now and the tender shows it took 1 1/2 days to reach 25% and 3 days to reach 50%. Am I doing something wrong? … —Terry Smith
Read the rest of the question and Mike’s answer.
• Join Mike’s Facebook group, RV Electricity.
• Read more of Mike’s articles here.
Quit struggling with hose and cable hookups at the campsite
Are you tired of struggling to hook up your coax cables, water hoses and other connections when you arrive at your campsite? It’s a snap with Cable and Hose Grips from J Wright Concepts. Save time and frustration! Life is too short to hassle with the little stuff! Learn more or order.
RV driver dies from tire blowout. Prevent it happening to you
*Note: This news story is a couple of years old, but the video is still just as important. Please watch. A 47-year-old Naples man died Sunday in a one-vehicle accident on Interstate 4. Florida Highway Patrol investigators say Jon MacDonough died at the scene after the RV he was driving had a tire blow out, left the road, hit a light pole and overturned onto its left side. Please watch this important video about what to do if the RV (or other vehicle) you are driving blows a tire. What you learn could save your life.
Reader poll
Given a choice, how often do you buy organic foods rather than non-organic?
Push those veggies aside and tell us here.
Helpful resources
• NATIONAL TRAFFIC AND ROAD CLOSURE INFORMATION.
• ROAD AND TRAFFIC CONDITIONS ACROSS THE NATION.
• WEATHER ALERTS FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
• CURRENT WILDFIRE REPORT.
• LATEST RV RECALLS.
• DIRECTORY OF RV PARKS WITH STORM SHELTERS.
Quick Tip
Know how your RV “measures up”
The importance of knowing how “tall” your RV is can’t be understated. But how to do it? Here’s a suggestion from Bob. He suggests getting a 2 x 4, a thick piece of Styrofoam, or even firm cardboard. Put your choice up on the top of your air conditioning unit, then use a tape measure to measure up to the bottom of the object. That way, you’ll have (hopefully) the figure for the tallest point of your RV.
By RV Travel editor Chuck Woodbury
Book for newbie RVers a must-have!
If you are planning to buy your first RV or are just getting started with your first rig, this book by RVtravel.com editor Chuck Woodbury should be a must read. The ABCs of RVing answers important questions that newbie RVers don’t even know enough to ask! Read this, and you’ll save countless hours of research and avoid making costly rookie mistakes. It’s available in both a Kindle version and printed edition.
Website of the day
The USA’s prettiest libraries
Oh, we’re just dreaming of the day we can go to libraries again! It’s the time of year we all want to cozy up with a book. Visit these beautiful libraries across the country and find yourself a good new book!
Popular articles you may have missed at RVtravel.com
• At last! A toy-hauler with a “hidden garage” – but with hidden problems
• All bottled up! A hilarious story of an RVing newbie…
• Add another room to your RV with this brilliant mod
#943-1
Trivia
See a yellow license plate in Ohio? It means something! Standard Ohio license plates are white with navy blue letters, with a red border around the top. If you see a yellow license plate with red writing, it means the person driving that car has been issued a DUI. This is mandatory for DUI offenders.
Hitch Ball Lubricant extends the life of your hitch mount!
Protect hitch balls and receivers from corrosion with this high-film strength and waterproof grease. Formulated to stay where you apply it, this lubricant reduces friction, wear, rust, water corrosion and noise. Compatible with any variety of trailer applications like receiver hitches, ball mounts, hitch balls, locks, couplers, jacks, and more. Learn more or order here.
Readers’ Pet(s) of the Day
“Annie (yellow) and Maddie (black) are 2 years old. They are sisters. They travel with us everywhere we go. Once the motorhome is set up in the campground, they take over the driver and passenger seats. They love to watch all the activity going by. In this photo we were at Anchor Down RV Resort In Dandridge, TN.” —John Wilkins
Send us a photo of your pet with a short description. We publish one each weekday in RV Daily Tips and in our Saturday RV Travel newsletter.
Leave here with a laugh
Oh, and we just came across this video we posted a while back at the beginning of the pandemic and we laughed all over again! It’s very short. Watch it here.
Did you miss the latest RV Travel Newsletter? If so, read it here.
And if you missed the latest Sunday News for RVers, make sure to catch up here.
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RV Daily Tips Staff
Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Editor: Emily Woodbury. Senior editor: Diane McGovern. Social media and special projects director: Jessica Sarvis. Financial affairs director: Gail Meyring. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen.
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Everything in this newsletter is true to the best of our knowledge. But we occasionally get something wrong. We’re just human! So don’t go spending $10,000 on something we said was good simply because we said so, or fixing something according to what we suggested (check with your own technician first). Maybe we made a mistake. Tips and/or comments in this newsletter are those of the authors and may not reflect the views of RVtravel.com or this newsletter.
Mail us at 9792 Edmonds Way, #265, Edmonds, WA 98020.
This newsletter is copyright 2020 by RVtravel.com
Trouble with the links to the articles this morning? I can only ‘access’ the photos this morning when I click to the article link.
Thank you
Yes Rick I have the same problem..same some of the articles really wanted to read..Bruce Calvin
They’ll probably send out a revised version later in the day. It’s still early in Seattle, so they need a little time to get up, have their coffee, and read our comments.
Ditto
-30-
Just right click on the link and select “open” or “open in new tab” and it will work.(Windows)
(Of course you’ll have to click on the new tab to see the new window or just select “open in new window”)
works great
Once I’ve open the news letter, I am unable to drill down past the first page introduction into any of the articles. The page grays out and scrolls to the top with a message, unable to load.
It seems this newsletter often has “link” issues. Today was a bad one. Oh well there’s always tomorrow I guess. A little testing by the staff or editor would go a long way before putting it out there.
Sorry, Dave. I proof every newsletter and every post, including every link, before they go out. It’s difficult to fix a glitch if it doesn’t show up for me when I check it. 😯 But I apologize for the inconvenience. —Diane at RVtravel.com
When I bought my trailer, the first page I went to was to find out the height. Once that was found, out came the ladder and I measured to make sure the number was accurate. I have encountered many bridges (thanks to the GPS) that were too low. But local law enforcement officers were always willing to lend a hand to help me turn around safely. God bless them.
An RV navigator will guide you around this type of obstacle. There are several makes and models available. We have the Garmin, and have never had a problem needing to turn around. Life can be much simpler for just a couple of hundred dollars.
The RV Life app that came with my RV Trip Wizard planning tool offers RV safe routes to avoid low bridges and other route challenges. The bundle was my first purchase when we decided to go full time early this year and, for ~$50, has been an absolute bargain for us!
Sleeping warmer during the winter, I unroll a space blanket under the bedsheet, helps reflect the warmth up. As beds next to walls, I usually tuck an extra pillow or three between the bed and the walls. Little things help.
instead of going to links, I’m going to very nice dog photo. Really want to read Mike’s item.
But, my quick thought, a battery tender is for maintaining a level, not for charging to a level. Nedd to fully charge the batteries, then go to “tender”.
Looks like some kind of link error on the main page, which I don’t have editing access to fix. I’m sure Diane will know about this in a few hours and correct it, but in the meantime here’s a direct link to my Battery Tender/Charger article: https://www.rvtravel.com/rv-electricity-jam-charging-batteries-with-tender/
The “Hot tip for cold RV nights” sounds like a whole lot more work than turning on our electric blanket twenty minutes before we go to bed. No noise either.
Your links are not working correctly.
Same here.
Weblinks just went to enlarged pictures; no articles.
The article links try to open photos, not the articles.
mine, too.
Second time in less than a month, I think, that links aren’t working. Would seem to be a good idea to implement a buddy system when publishing so that there’s someone to double check content before it goes live.
Hope we’ll see today’s issue fixed soon. As always, there’s a couple of articles that really piqued my interest!
Sorry, Julie. Everything worked fine when I proofed the newsletter and checked every link last night. There was apparently a bug in the code somewhere, but it didn’t act up for me. I’m very careful about proofing everything, and hate it when something like this happens “after the fact.” —Diane at RVtravel.com
Are you volunteering to double check?
There is a problem with the links to articles on this web site. None seem to be working.
Hmm? Jim’s cozy advice……..Hitch Ball Lubricant. Now that’s cozy.
Wonder how many people will run out and buy the jar of special waterproof grease for there hitch ball? Only in America!!
I have a novel idea. How about proof reading & double checking your newsletter before sending it out. These wrong or missing links & mistakes happen too often.
Gee Fred, I don’t know what you do (or did) for a living, but I’m guessing you were PERFECT at it and never made mistakes. I’m going to paraphrase here…”let him that never made a mistake cast the first stone.” I look forward to the articles, and like most of the readers, appreciate how much work goes in to producing this newsletter DAILY for us to enjoy.
yah!
Hi, Fred. FYI, when I proofed it and checked all of the links last night, everything worked fine. It’s difficult to fix something that may happen “in the future,” i.e., after it’s been proofed. Or, I could stay up all night just in case the gremlins get in there after a newsletter has been proofed and sent out. Or, we could send them out later in the morning so there wouldn’t be such a delay when the gremlins get in there after I’m done working for the night. 😯 —Diane at RVtravel.com
double yeah!!! have some patience Fred!
Gosh, in all the years I have used a computer or any other such electronic gizmo, the ONLY time that I have found a glitch is with this news letter. lol
My idea is: Everyone on the West Coast should get up two hours earlier and everyone on the East Coast stay in bed two hours longer and we could meet the internet in the middle. No more glitches.
Ha! Does that mean I get to go to bed two hours earlier (i.e., stop working two hours earlier)? Yeah, Kelly. Ain’t gonna happen. 😆 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Oh, I get your point. I wasn’t thinking – you see, I live on the east coast so it sounded good to me. Have a great day — or night — where ever you are.
But, no matter how we juggled our schedules (East Coast and West Coast), Kelly, those danged gremlins would still get in there and mess up something when we weren’t looking. 😯 Take care. 🙂 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Links don’t open. But my 2 cents on “organic” food is its a crock. I’m never going to pay more for it. Its neither better or worse for your health.
Only curious as to your qualifications in determining “neither better or worse”? Do you think that pesticides which accumulated in some produce are good for your health? Not trying to start a debate, just curious as it relates to your opinion. There will be no follow up discussion.
2nd the comment
I can’t get any of the links to work??
Looks like we have to wait for West Coasties to wake up so they can fix the problem again.
Right click and “open in new tab” worked for me. When I forget and just click to open on same page, they aren’t working.
None of the links work
There are already many people who have said the links aren’t working, please don’t add your whine to the pile. If you page down, “Brian” said to try right-clicking the link and ‘open in new tab/window’.
Meanwhile, any freeloadereaders might want to follow my friends advice after I had a bad night boondocking “I think you should ask for your money back”.
Links seem to be messed up
Sorry, folks. We had some issues with our links this morning. Everything is working fine now. Enjoy! —Emily, RVtravel.com
Yes I seeeeeee! Stuff happens!
You can make broken links a feature instead of a bug! Promise to give a free shoutout to the reader who reports the most broken links in the current issue; bonus points if they find the address that the broken link was supposed to point to.
Cold RV nights! In the Navy when I was in Yokosuka & Sasebo Japan, whenever I would be staying the night in a sleep over they would put a nicely heated brick in a special bag under the covers at the end of the bed, that kept you warm till at least you fell a sleep or whatever was going on.
Snoopy!
Good idea about the Ohio plates. I wish our state did that.
one concern is that the person driving the vehicle is not the person convicted of dui. a better solution is mandatory jail time, driver’s license revocation and a hefty fine. no solution is perfect but targeting the guilty person is more just.
My thought exactly. My husband sometimes drives my car rather than the truck. I don’t drink and in the unlikely scenario he got a DUI, I certainly wouldn’t want to drive a car with a DUI license plate.
On measureing your RV, on some bridges an inch one way or the other can be critical. When measuring the height, play safe (don’t just eyeball the level) place a level on the 2 x 4 to be sure. I also as a precaution add an additional inch.
I’ve always added 3 inches just to be safer. Never know when they may have resurfaced the road and not changed the height sign.
Wow…so much anger over a problem with links. Seems that someone or many someones need to be patient. And as a suggestion, when the first oh, say 10 people report a problem, perhaps you don’t need to add to it over and over. They get it.
Like.
Be nice is everyone would skim the comments before commenting.
Talk about annoying.
If you need a laugh… scrolling through the newsletter kind of in a hurry and saw the Tip of the Day with the accompanying picture. Quick look at the photo and I’m wondering, what does a meat tenderizer have to do with warm sleeping?
We all know now it was a hair dryer, but that wasn’t clear until I took a few more seconds to look it over and read the story. Has anyone else done silly things like that and will admit it?
Well we now know how much each publication is anxiously looked at every morning by the numerous complaints logged!! I think rvtravel does a great job and the newsletter is very informative and interesting. Some missing links that are Always corrected same day are worth the wait. Just my 2cents.
We enjoyed your link on pretty libraries. We went to the Provincetown, MA, Library a couple years ago during our round the U.S. treck. It is beautiful and has a lovingly built full size Rose Dorothea Schooner replica from the early 1900s on the second floor!
re: quick tip, I used a similiar procedure for measuring the height of my coach, but I then add 3 inches to that measurement. You never know when you are going to encounter a newly laid surface which can sometimes subtract a couple of extra inches from the height listed on the signage. I encountered that back East when driving down a road to get to the RV park. I couldn’t get thru although the height posted on the sign said 13′ 6″. and i’m 13′ 3″. I had to find an alternate way to get the entrance which only required a 3 mile detour. Rather that then new A/C and roof damage….
Cold bed? Flannel sheets help a lot.
My late wife bought a set of flannel sheets and I thought I’d burn up, then she bought silk sheets and I chased my pillow all night. Just not a good replacement for cotton sheets.
We tried flannel sheets and felt like characters on a Sunday School flannel board.